GENEVA, Jan 25, 2026 (BSS/AFP) - The World Health Organization's chief pushed back Saturday against harsh US criticism of his agency's record during the Covid pandemic, rejecting charges it had violated countries' sovereignty.

US Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. took aim at the WHO in a video posted on X on Friday as he announced that Washington had formally withdrawn from the organisation.

He argued that WHO, which has not confirmed that the US withdrawal has taken effect, had "lost its way".

"It has drifted far from its founding mission, and it has become mired in bureaucracy, in conflicts of interest and in international power politics," he charged, insisting that "during the covid pandemic, those failures weren't just abstract, they were deadly".

Kennedy suggested that WHO was responsible for "the Americans who died alone in nursing homes (and) the small businesses that were destroyed by reckless mandates" to wear masks and get vaccinated.

The US withdrawal, he insisted, was about "protecting American sovereignty, and putting US public health back in the hands of the American people".

Deputy Health Secretary Jim O'Neill meanwhile charged on X that the WHO had "ignored rigorous science and promoted lockdowns" during the pandemic.

- 'Inaccurate information' -

Responding on X, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the statement "contains inaccurate information".

"While WHO recommended the use of masks, physical distancing and vaccines, WHO did not recommend governments to mandate the use of masks or vaccines and never recommended lockdowns," he said.

"WHO supported sovereign governments with technical advice and guidance that was developed on the basis of evolving evidence on Covid-19 for them to make policy decisions in the best interests of their citizens," he stressed.

"Each government made their own decisions, based on their needs and circumstances."

The row came after Washington struggled to dislodge itself from the WHO, a year after US President Donald Trump signed an executive order to withdraw.

The one-year withdrawal process reached completion on Thursday, but Kennedy lamented in a joint statement with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio that the UN health agency had "not approved our withdrawal and, in fact, claims that we owe it compensation".

WHO has meanwhile highlighted that when Washington joined the organisation in 1948, it reserved the right to withdraw, as long as it gave one year's notice and had met "its financial obligations to the organisation in full for the current fiscal year".

But currently, Washington has not paid its 2024 or 2025 dues, and is behind around $260 million.

The issue is scheduled to be discussed during WHO's Executive Board meeting next month.